Technological advances

Technological advances

Question 1

Technology has made healthcare delivery faster cheaper and safer, an aspect that can be further improved in the presence of CIO departments in a healthcare facility. Tideland’s health in Georgetown, for instance, has a CIO who is in charge of the technical aspects such as EMR, among others.  Quality of services is evaluated based on the ease of access to faculties, speed of service delivery, as well as the accuracy of the same. Technology makes most of the processes in the healthcare facility quicker and more efficient (George, 2017). Electronic medical records, for instance, increases the efficiency of treatment due to more accessible access to medical history. Screening of patients has also been made easier through technological innovations such as CT scans to determine internal injuries or any other issues the patients may be experiencing, such as brain tumours, among others. Some of the most recent and significant technological advances in the healthcare departments include electronic medical records, telemedicine, mHealth, Pharmacogenomics/genome sequencing, Portal technology, sensors and wearable technology, wireless communications, among other equipment used in the healthcare facilities.

The article ‘CIO and the future of IT’ articulate that CIO is in demand in the current and future age due to their increased roles in a technological world based on the speed and efficiency of the technology in healthcare (George, 2017). The healthcare facilities are regarded as organizations on their own terms. This therefore signifies that with further advances in technology and its incorporation into the healthcare system, the need for CIO is inevitable. It can, therefore, be deduced that technology has made healthcare delivery faster cheaper and safer, an aspect that can be further improved in the presence of CIO departments in a healthcare facility.

Question 2

According to Nicholas Carr, there was a time when incorporating information technology into business provided a great advantage to organizations and companies over their competitors (Carr, 2003). In the article on ‘Putting Humans at the Center of Healthcare Innovation,’ the writers embrace the use of technology in the improvement of healthcare products and services (Bhatti et al., 2018). They, however, go ahead to mention that it’s no longer enough to employ technology in the healthcare field as it has been the tradition. This article introduces the involvement of the end-user or the patient in the process of developing healthcare products and shaping the process of service delivery.

As the team of medics, engineers, financiers, and other stakeholders undertake the innovation process, a patient or end-user of the product being developed is also involved in the innovation process. Carr has something to learn from the authors of ‘Putting Humans at the Center of Healthcare Innovation’ in the sense that every business venture or organization can adopt the model of putting humans at the centre of their innovations (Bhatti et al., 2018). This will help improve one’s competitive advantage over its competitors who are just inclined to the traditional methods of adopting the technology. When the end-user is involved in the innovation process, they have the tendency to own the product right from the beginning.

Question 3

Carr stipulates that an increase in the use of information technology by companies due to its availability and low cost. This aspect takes away any competitive advantage that companies and organizations had some time back when companies in their various operations were first adopting information technology. The smartwatch project agrees to some extent with Carr’s argument that the same technology being developed by Samsung is also easily developed by her competitors such as Apple. Kaiser Permanente is talking with apple over the same innovation deal that they have with Samsung. This means that Samsung does not have many advantages over the apple as far as it is concerned (Kane, 2015).

Putting humans at the centre of healthcare innovation is a program in which patients are involved early in the process of healthcare innovation hence making the end product more human-centred. In this case, the medics, the engineers, the financiers, and other stakeholders work together with the end-user in developing the final product (Kane, 2015). According to DrJohn halakha of Beth Israel deaconess medical centre, digital transformation is meant to make health care services provision safer, faster, and cheaper. This is exactly what the smartwatch project is bringing into the healthcare system (Kane, 2015). In this program, patients can receive medical attention at home and avoid the in-clinic program, which is more expensive. This program has also reduced the rate of readmission, which is an advantage over the in-clinic program.

References

Bhatti, Y., Castillo , J. d., Olson , K., & Darzi, A. (2018, Mar 2). Putting Humans at the Center of Health Care Innovation. Retrieved from Havard Business school: https://hbr.org/2018/03/putting-humans-at-the-center-of-health-care-innovation

Carr, N. G. (2003, May). IT doesnt matter. Retrieved from Havard Business school : https://hbr.org/2003/05/it-doesnt-matter

George F, C. (2017, Nov 13). CIOs and the Future of IT. Retrieved from MITsloan management review : https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/cios-and-the-future-of-it/

Kane, G. C. (2015). How Digital Transformation Is Making Health Care Safer, Faster and

Cheaper. MITSloan management review. Retrieved from MITSloan management review.